They were keeping to the winds, and, according to Vachlan, making good time. She was the one who poured over the map every morning, then checked where they were in relation to where they’d been. Rive was adjusting the ship’s propeller and making sure the wind wasn’t taking them to Wavemeet, and that if they continued in as they’d been going, they should be in Shark’s Cove.
Other than that, they had meals together and worked on personal projects. Vachlan was testing out her wing endurance and beginning to carry objects in order to build it up as she flew. Rive was working on something in the ship's underpart, mentioning only they would need a few more supplies to really test it out. And Seren was going through the books, sharing information she thought would benefit either them individually or everyone as a crew.
“I found something else about guilds,” Seren said one morning over breakfast. They were sitting down to a meal of mushrooms over fish sauce pasta and dried meat strips, and she’d been reading one of the history books, A Field of Nightmares. “They apparently formed over two hundred years ago, and were one reason why the Grand War dragged on so long.”
“I can see that,” said Rive, nodding.
“I...” Seren took a deep breath, looking down at the ground as she continued. “I don’t know anything about the war. This is information from the beginning of the book.”
She quailed under the combined look Rive and Vachlan gave her.
“I learned about ones that happened long ago, like how Sun’s Expansion took place. That’s how my father’s family was run out of their country. But the book I’m reading said there was a big war recently.”
“The Grand War...” Rive said slowly. “Really? You know nothing about it?”
“Nothing.”
“How old are your parents?” They still had that confused look on their face. “They should at least know about it. Lived through it.”
“Dad is just shy of his forty-fifth birthday, and father’s about three years younger than him.”
Vachlan shook her head. “That makes no sense. I mean, Azmar wasn’t part of the war. Nobody thought we’d be useful, so they left us alone, but I still knew it was happening.”
“It does, actually,” Rive leaned back against a wall with a sigh. “We already know Captain’s parents didn’t teach her a damn thing about geography, and not a lot about the towns nearby. I’m guessing recent history was also ignored.”
“My father taught me about the Sun’s Expansion. And dad taught me about the Metal Wars.”
“The good thing about that is that’s the base for the war you haven’t talked about, so knowing all of that means you should be able to pick up things pretty quickly.” Rive leaned forward. “So, you know how Shura-Shea tried to take over Gliur and get their mining access, right? And that started the Metal Wars?”
She nodded.
“Keep those two countries in mind, because when Gliur decided to get back at Shura-Shea, their excuse being that they would claim items as ‘repayment for starting disaster,’ Shura-Shea pulled in the allies they been forced to make after the war, and essentially demanded that the allies fight Gliur for them. Which, they decided, they were big and mean enough to do. The allies would fight, win, and split Gliur up so they all had a place of their own.”
“Gliur, by the way,” added Vachlan, “was smaller and had just been through the Metal Wars, so the population was weaker, smaller, and already sick of having to fight. The allied countries thought Gliur would just roll over.”
“I’m guessing they didn’t,” said Seren, a smile on her face.
“Hell no, they didn’t. That country was the biggest group of assholes to go up against, and the mines that they’d kept from the first war were the reason they survived the second. The allies didn’t want to hurt their future mining operations, so they stayed away from doing anything in those areas that would make the mines collapse.”
“And what’s where people started to live, I’m guessing? That makes sense.”
Rive nodded. “Yep! And they planned counter attacks from there, made small groups to sneak in and out, and caused a lot of chaos.”
“Did they win?”
“One small country against seven? Not a chance. They were overrun about five years later.”
“So... That ended the war?”
“That’s honestly what started it. When the allies swooped in to divide up the country, they weren’t satisfied with the results, and Truin attacked Japlieta at the table. Almost immediately, the alliance fell apart, and everyone started attacking everyone else.”
“...why?”
“Because now was their chance to justify the war and grab even more.” Rive shrugged. “And that’s pretty much how The Grand War began. Viadora declared itself a neutral city, since our country is sandwiched between two of the allies, and we allowed both sides to use the ‘Shroom and whatever services we could sell.”
“Maybe the reason I don’t know all this is because my home island was small. We’re just a farm.”
“That’s even more reason to have heard about it. Where do you think the military gets meals from? It’s not like they’re planting crops and raising meat. At the very least, your parents would have been selling a lot of their animals.”
“We had about twenty dairy cows, besides pigs, goats, and lots of chickens. The animals were why my parents had people coming up to the farm to work. Well, that and the garden. Whatever we didn’t use, they were welcome to take as payment.”
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“Is that normal?” Vachlan turned to Rive. They shrugged.
“I was born and raised in Viadora. You can ask me about pretty much anything except farming. Or hunting.”
Seren shrugged. “I always thought it was normal. But I could never travel off the island, and I always had the feeling that people were extra quiet when talking to me. They’d rather listen to me talk about a butterfly I saw near the river, not the fact that I’d grown.”
“I want to say it sounds like they were hiding the war from you, but that’s strange. It’s been over for at least the last twenty years, and you weren’t even born yet.” They looked at her and she shrugged.
“I’ll look for more information with dad’s name when we land. Maybe that’ll give us something to go on besides guesses.” Seren looked over to the books she hadn’t flicked through.
“Thanks for the meal,” Vachlan said suddenly, bowing her head and backing away from the table. “It’s always interesting to know more, but I need to stretch my wings and see how close we are to Shark’s Cove.”
“And, sorry to join and make it look like I’m abandoning you as well, but I just had an idea of how to fill in for the missing piece of my experiment.” Rive stood up and pulled the trapdoor open. “I’ll be down if you need me.”
“Sure.” Seren took the last bit of dried mushrooms, cramming them into her mouth so the bowl was empty. “Vachlan, safe journeys and Rive, safe experiments.”
She got a wing wave and a thumbs up in turn. Then it was time for a daily chore. Well, twice daily since they ate breakfast and dinner together. Lunch was when people were sleeping, so everyone was on their own at that point. At the moment, she was doing the dishes for the meals, but she and Rive had been talking about splitting that task since it wasn’t something easy for wings to go. Since they had their project, though, she didn’t mind cleaning up.
Three bowls, two spoons, and the pot she’d needed to heat the sauce and cook the noodles with. Filling the water to rinse the plates, she wondered about how little she knew.
“At least I know how to read, and I enjoy it?” She sighed. As a skill, that was great, but it didn’t replace history or map knowledge. Science and math... “Hmm… Now that’s an interesting thought.”
Putting the dishes up to dry, Seren wandered down and cleared her throat behind Rive, hoping not to scare them.
“What’s on your mind?” They remained bent over something in their lap, a mess of silver and tubes creating something she couldn’t identify.
“Question.”
“Maybe an answer?”
“How do flies walk on the ceiling?”
Rive paused, then turned around to stare at her. “What?”
“How do flies walk on the ceiling? It’s a science question.”
“I...” They shrugged as much as they could without losing what they were working on. “I have no idea.”
“They have little claws at the end of their feet, I saw it under a magnifying glass.” She held out a hand. “Okay, second question. Why is the sky blue?”
“...because it’s blue?”
“Light comes in different colors, and blue is the one that is most visible.” Seren started smiling. “Last question.”
“Why?”
“Just trust me, I have a reason for this. Ready? What is a material that will not carry an electric charge called?”
“Isolater in Viadorra, but I’ve heard that other places might call it an insulator.”
For a few seconds, she was a little upset that they’d answered correctly, but then it occurred to her that Rive experimented and worked with a lot of materials. She should have known they’d have a ready answer.
“Okay, so you know the ones that deal with building things, but you didn’t know either of the questions about world science. They did actually teach me something!”
Rive blinked, then slowly nodded. “Good point. So, you’re not up to date on current history, but you might be on science. If you know about recent discoveries, then that would prove they could teach you, but decided not to on certain things.”
“I was just thinking earlier about what I’m good at, which is science, cooking, sewing, swimming, reading, and writing.”
“Math too, or at least more than the average person I’ve seen,” mused Rive. “So there’s something related to history we need to figure out.”
“I’ll keep thinking about it, and of course, we’ll probably pick up more books when we land in Shark’s Cove.”
“I’m seeing a pattern emerging, though I’m surprised you didn’t get any books in Via when you were there.”
Seren felt an intense dislike of Bri welling up. “If I hadn’t been threaded almost the moment I landed there, then I might have tried to find some bookstores. Viadora was too... much for me, though. All the people, the sounds, the smells. I wish I had started with Azmar since that’s a much smaller place, and easier for me not to be overwhelmed.”
“True. And I didn’t know that you needed books back then.”
“Also, a lack of coin.” Seren rubbed her fingers together. “But now we have some on us.”
“... we should either split it three ways evenly, or all of us take a certain amount and pool it together for food and things the ship needs.”
She nodded. “Sounds like a good idea. We can run the idea past Vachlan tonight and see what she says.”
“Nice.”
“Heading back up, good luck with, um, whatever you’re doing,” she finished, gesturing to the stuff in front of them.
Rive grunted, already lost in the mechanics again, and she left, going up the small ladder and closing the door.
“Okay, dishes done, Vachlan is out and flying...” She looked at the books and grinned. “Oh no, more reading. What a horrible thing to happen, being free, exploring, and reading.”
She plucked A Field of Nightmares from the shelf and settled down on the bed, getting comfortable and opening it back up to where she’d left off. Just as she was getting back into the creation of the guilds, a thud sounded from outside.
“Vachlan? Are you done already?” Seren waited for a response, but nothing came. “Are you okay?”
Still nothing. With a sigh, Seren put her book down, got up, and opened the door to the outside. From her spot, she saw three beings of various shapes and sizes. All of them were wearing off fabric masks, gloves, and long sleeves robes, meaning she couldn’t see a single identifiable feature.
“Who are—” They cut her question off as one of them grabbed her and shoved a piece of rolled up cloth in her mouth. Gagged, they threw a line of rope around her, tightening as she tried to squirm away.
“Got her,” said one of them, twisting another rope around Seren’s ankles. “Anyone else inside?”
The person with the bushy red hair poked their head past the door frame and quickly pulled it back out again. “No one else, just her.”
Rive! Seren stomped on the ground, hoping they could hear that from the underpart of the ship. She got three good hits in, and then she was hoisted up and put on someone’s shoulder. A continued kick hit them in their back, but they just shook her.
“Be a good hostage and things will be good. Piss me off,” they continued in a low voice, “and you’ll see how bad things can be.”
She froze at that. If Rive hadn’t heard her before, they weren’t going to hear her now.
“Back on the ship, hurry!” whispered the leader of the group; or at least, Seren presumed them to be. At the command, all three faced away from the tree, looked out into the open sky, and started running.
She closed her eyes, then forced herself to open them. People weren’t kidnapped just for everyone to throw themselves to their deaths. They were acting on a plan to get back to their ship, and maybe it would work when she escaped to return.